Maternal sensitivity during infancy and subsequent life events relate to attachment representation at early adulthood.

A prospective longitudinal research study of 86 prematurely born children from birth to age 18 years provided empirical evidence for continuity from infancy experience to representations of attachment at age 18 years. Young adults whose representation of attachment was dismissing had been objectively observed during infancy, 16-17 years earlier, to receive less sensitive maternal care than those infants who were later judged at early adulthood to have secure or preoccupied representations. Infancy experience alone did not differentiate young adults with secure representations from those with preoccupied representations. Rather, adverse life events through age 12, particularly parental divorce, reduced the likelihood of secure representations and increased the likelihood of preoccupied representations. The absence of adverse life events did not increase the likelihood of security for those who had not experienced early sensitive caregiving.     

Locus of control and the age difference in free recall from episodic memory.

The authors investigated the relation of locus of control (LOC) to age differences in free-recall memory performance. Older and younger participants completed P. C. Duttweiler's (1984) Internal Control Index (ICI) and subsequently performed free-recall memory tasks. Compared with the younger participants, the older participants exhibited poorer recall with more intrusions and uncorrected repetition errors as well as reduced categorical clustering. For the older participants with less internal LOC, recall proportion and item-pair associative recall clustering were lower than for the older participants with more internal LOC. By contrast, the younger participants did not exhibit any LOC effects in their recall performance. The results suggest that a differential memory organization deficit may underlie the age differences in free recall among individuals varying in LOC when they are performing an intentional learning task. This deficit is discussed in terms of a reduced-inhibition account of cognitive aging.     

On the relationship between self-focused attention and psychological disorder: a critical reappraisal.

A recent review of the literature on the role of self-focused attention in psychological dysfunction (Ingram, 1990) is critically examined. This article (a) reexamines the evidence relevant to Ingram's proposal that self-awareness is a nonspecific factor involved in virtually all forms of psychopathology and argues that this conclusion is not warranted by the existing evidence; (b) takes issue with his premise that the fact that self-awareness is associated with a variety of psychological dysfunctions poses a conceptual dilemma; (c) corrects several important inaccuracies and mischaracterizations in his presentation of Carver and Scheier's (1981) cybernetic control theory and Pyszczynski and Greenberg's (1987) self-regulatory perseveration theory; and (d) critiques the "self-absorption" model that he proposed as an alternative to extant theories and concludes that this conceptualization does not add to the understanding of either self-awareness processes or psychopathology.     

MASCULINE BIAS IN THE ATTRIBUTION OF PERSONHOOD

Silveira (1980) noted that not just masculine generics, but also neutral terms, have masculine connotations; she called this the "people = male" bias. Her hypothesis takes two forms: people = male, a male is more likely seen as a person than is a female; and male = people, a person is more likely believed to be male than female. A total of 108 female and 91 male college students participated in three studies. Study 1 tested male = people. Participants referring back to a female or male protagonist as a woman/man or as a person were significantly more likely to refer to the male with a nongender-specific term. Studies 2 and 3 tested people = male. In Study 2, reanalysis of data from Hamilton and Henley (1982) showed that hearing unbiased generics promoted male-biased mental imagery in men. In Study 3, participants'imagined "typical person" was significantly more likely to be male than female.     

Problems involved in toilet-training profoundly mentally handicapped adults

Toileting difficulties constitute a severe problem in institutions for the mentally handicapped. The present study, in a British institution, is a cross-validation of the approach to toilet training outlined by Azrin et al. in the U.S.A. Although Azrin's approach was basically successful, a number of differences were found in running the programme. These differences, together with practical difficulties encountered, are discussed.     

Ontogenetic dissociation of two classes of habituation.

The rates of decrement of two classes of response (an elicited startle reflex and emitted exploratory behavior) were determined in rats of two different ages (15 and 36 days). The rate of decrement in the startle reflex was not clearly differentiated as a function of age. In contrast, there was no evidence of habituation of exploration in the younger animals, whereas the older rats uniformly showed profound response decrements. This ontogenetic dissociation of the two instances of response decrement indicates that accounts of both instances in terms of a common process called habituation may be unwarranted. In addition, these data, in conjunction with earlier findings, indirectly support the possibility that reflex decrements may be relatively more dependent on brain serotonin whereas decrements in exploration may be more dependent on normal cholinergic activity in brain.     

A test of inclusion which allows for errors of measurement

A test which allows for errors of measurement is derived for the hypothesis that all the members of a population who possess a certain skill are a sub-set of the members who possess another skill. Formulae are given for one particular case when two questions are used for each skill, and for when three questions are used for each skill. An illustrative example is given for the two-question case. The authors are indebted to M. L. Turner for his assistance in the initial stages of development of the test.     

Elevator illusion: Influences of otolith organ activity and neck proprioception

Each of nine Ss experienced gravitational-inertial forces (GIFs) of 1.00, 1.25, 1.50, and 1.75 G_z with his head erect and pitched forward at angles of 15 and 30 deg. The magnitude of the elevator illusion was shown to depend on both the intensity of the GIFs and the orientation of the head. Contributions of otolith organ activity and of neck proprioception to the illusion were examined, and theoretical baseg for their influences were discussed.     

A comparison of systematic desensitization and reinforced practice procedures in fear reduction

At least two strategies of behavior modification seem possible in the treatment of neurotic disorders. In the first, systematic desensitization is used to reduce the anxiety associated with the avoidance behavior, thus reducing avoidance of the feared stimulus. In the second, anxiety is ignored and approach behavior is shaped by direct reinforcement according to operant conditioning principles. Each procedure enjoys a literature of successful application in both laboratory and clinical settings. Systematic desensitization has been effective in treating fears of small animals (Lang and Lazovik, 1963) interpersonal anxieties (Paul, 1966), and classic phobias (Lazarus, 1961). Operant approaches involving reinforced practice have proved successful in treating agoraphobia (Agras et al., 1968), anorexia nervosa (Bachrach et al., 1965), and various types of behavior of psychotic patients (Risley and Wolf, 1967; Ayllon and Azrin, 1968).The present study was designed to examine the relative therapeutic effectiveness of systematic desenzitization and reinforced practice in the treatment of snake phobia. Although Barlow et al. (1970) have suggested that “shaping” is more effective than systematic desensitization in the reduction of avoidance behavior, Ss in their “shaping” condition were given more experience with the aversive stimulus than desensitization Ss. The present study avoids such confounding.